Hi Wendy,
Sorry I disagree. The important thing about cuckoos (or I should say nest
parasites, as there are other groups of birds that do the same thing and not
all species of cuckoos do this) is that these chicks do not imprint on the
foster parents. This for the reason you mention, that it would not work if they
direct their sexual activities towards the foster parent species when mature.
Imprinting occurs during a very narrow time frame and is permanent. Also, not
all birds imprint in the way that some ducks and ground birds do. This is
usually a rapid bit of learning among those chicks that are born advanced and
mobile. Also it is not even as simple as that. I believe that even among (some
/ most?) duck species, males (drakes) will direct sexual preference towards a
duck like the one they were imprinted on but (female) ducks instinctively
recognise the right males regardless. With these Channel-billed Cuckoos the
dependant young are simply staying with the foster parent species for feeding
and maybe protection or company.
Philip
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